Tafsir of Al-Ahzab 33:23

"Among the believers are men..."—meaning, those who believe with absolute sincerity, not only those whose virtues have been recounted previously.

"...[who] have proven true what they pledged to Allah"—meaning, they were true in their steadfastness alongside the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, and in fighting the enemies. It has also been said that it refers to obedience in its absolute sense, and what was mentioned [regarding fighting] is included in this primarily. The cause of revelation makes the former interpretation manifest.

Imam Ahmad, Muslim, al-Tirmidhi, al-Nasa'i, and a group [of scholars] narrated from Anas, who said: "My uncle, Anas bin al-Nadr, was absent from the Battle of Badr and felt distressed by this. He said: 'The first battle that the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, witnessed, I was absent from it. If Allah the Almighty shows me a battle with the Messenger of Allah later on, Allah will surely see what I will do.' So, he witnessed the Battle of Uhud. Sa'd bin Mu'adh, may Allah be pleased with him, met him and said: 'O Abu ‘Amr! Where are you going?' He replied: 'Ah! I smell the scent of Paradise from behind Mount Uhud.' He fought until he was killed, and more than eighty wounds from sword strikes, spear thrusts, and arrow shots were found on his body. Then this verse was revealed: 'Among the believers are men who have proven true what they pledged to Allah.' They used to consider that it was revealed concerning him and his companions."

In al-Kashshaf, it is mentioned that a group of the Companions vowed that if they encountered a battle with the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, they would remain steadfast and fight until they attained martyrdom—meaning, they vowed complete steadfastness and the kind of fighting that, by custom, leads to attaining martyrdom. They were Uthman bin Affan, Talhah bin Ubaydullah, Sa'id bin Zayd bin ‘Amr bin Nufayl, Hamzah, Mus'ab bin ‘Umayr, and others. Al-Kalbi and Muqatil said that these men are the seventy people of al-Aqabah, the people of the Pledge. Yazid bin Ruman said: "They are the Banu Harithah." The most reliable opinion to me is what I have presented first.

The meaning of "proven true" (sadaqu) is that they brought forth truth; [it is derived from] "he told me the truth" (sadaqani) when he speaks the truth. The position of "what they pledged" (ma ‘ahadu) is in the accusative case, either by the removal of the preposition and the arrival of the verb to it—as in their saying "He told me the truth [regarding] the age of his camel"—or that it is the direct object.

He made "what they pledged" equivalent to a person who is pledged to, by way of metaphorical allusion (isti'arah makniyyah), and treated it as one who has been told the truth, which is imaginative.

"Of them are some who have fulfilled their vow"—this is a detail regarding the condition of those who were true, dividing them into two groups. "The vow" (al-nahb), according to al-Raghib, is the promise declared as obligatory; it is said "such-and-such fulfilled his vow (qada nahbahu)," meaning he kept his promise. Abu Hayyan said: "The vow is the thing a person commits to and believes in fulfilling." The poet said: "On the evening the Harithis fled, after Hubar had fulfilled his vow at the meeting place of the people." And Jarir said: "At Takhfah we battled kings, and our horses, on the evening of Bistam, ran upon a vow"—meaning upon a great matter he committed himself to perform.

It became common for "such-and-such fulfilled his vow" to mean he died. This is either because "the vow" is used as a metaphorical expression (isti'arah tasrihiyyah) for death, because it is like a necessary vow on the neck of every human, with the context providing the implication and the "fulfilling" (al-qada') being the corroborating term, or that the phrase "fulfilling the vow" is used metaphorically for death.

It is permissible that "the vow" in the verse means the promise, or it may mean death. Some eminent scholars have said it is permissible that it is used metaphorically for committing oneself to die as a martyr, either by treating the causes—which are the voluntary acts of the one making the vow—as the commitment itself, or by treating oneself as the causes. Bringing the commitment upon it is more appropriate to the context of praise. Treating it as a metaphor for death, because it is like a necessary vow, is a corruption of the metaphor, a stripping of its elegance, and an exclusion of the noble arrangement from the requirement of the context entirely. This is the end [of the quote], and in it is a clear prohibition, as is not hidden from the fair-minded.

The surface meaning of some reports suggests that the vow here means the promise, and its fulfillment is its performance and keeping. Ibn Abi ‘Asim, al-Tirmidhi—who graded it hasan—Ibn Jarir, al-Tabarani, and Ibn Marduyah narrated from Talhah that the Companions of the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said to an ignorant Bedouin: "Ask him who it is that has fulfilled his vow," for they did not dare to ask him, out of reverence and awe for him. The Bedouin asked him, and later I looked from the mosque door. He said: "Where is the one who asked about the one who fulfilled his vow?" The Bedouin said: "I am." He said: "This is among those who have fulfilled their vow." Ibn Mandah and Ibn ‘Asakir narrated from Asma bint Abi Bakr that Talhah bin Ubaydullah entered upon the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, and he said: "O Talhah, you are among those who have fulfilled their vow." Al-Hakim narrated a similar account from ‘Aishah.

Al-Tirmidhi and others narrated from Mu'awiyah that he said: "I heard the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, saying: 'Talhah is among those who have fulfilled their vow.'" It is as if ‘Ali, may Allah honor his face, meant to praise him with this when it was said to him: "Tell us about Talhah," and he replied: "That is a man about whom a verse was revealed in the Book of Allah: 'Of them are some who have fulfilled their vow, and of them are some who wait.'" Abu al-Shaykh and Ibn ‘Asakir narrated this from him, may Allah honor his face. He, may Allah be pleased with him, had stood firm on the day of Uhud until his hand was struck. Mujahid followed the opinion that the vow should be taken literally. Thus, the meaning is: "Of them are some who fulfilled their promise and performed their vow, and of them"—meaning some of them—"are some who wait" for a day in which there is jihad, so he will fulfill his vow, perform his promise, and keep his covenant.

Those who interpret "what they pledged to Allah" generally and keep the "vow" in its literal sense say: The meaning is, of them are some who fulfilled their covenants of Islam and the obligations of obedience, and of them are some who wait to attain the highest levels of faith and righteousness. A problem is raised by keeping the "vow" in its literal sense, because fulfilling the vow is the essence of being true to the covenant; thus, the meaning would be: "Among the believers are men who made a covenant with Allah and were true, meaning they did and fulfilled what they pledged to Allah. So of them are some who did and fulfilled what they pledged." This constitutes dividing a thing into itself. This meaning is also challenged by the words of the Almighty: "And of them are some who wait," because one who waits has not yet fulfilled; so how can he be made a division of those who were true, meaning those who fulfilled?

It is answered that the intention by "truth" in the verse is the correspondence of the propositional statement to the external reality. This speech, containing this statement, is what their covenant of steadfastness required, such as their saying: "If Allah shows us a battle with the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, we will certainly remain steadfast and fight." Attaching the news to the "truth," as well as the informativeness, does not require more than the correspondence of its proposition to the reality at one of the times. For example, "Zayd is standing" is true, as is the informed-about [event] at the time of informing, even if the standing occurs after a thousand years, for example. Likewise, "If the sun is rising, then it is daytime" is true, even if it was spoken at night. Thus, when these men informed about themselves that if Allah showed them a battle with His Messenger, peace and blessings be upon him, they would remain steadfast and fight, and the Almighty knew that this corresponded to reality, the Almighty informed about them that they were true. Then He, the Exalted, divided them into two sections: a section that performed what it informed about itself that it would perform, and a section that waits for a time to perform it. This section is not described as lying unless he dies while Allah has shown him that and he has not performed. Those whom Allah informed about as being true did not die until they performed, so there is no problem.

Yes, the problem exists on the assumption that "truth" in "what they pledged" means verifying the covenant in their manifested actions, as explained by al-Raghib, and that "fulfilling the vow" means the performance of the vow or covenant, as is not hidden. It is said: The meaning of their "truth" mentioned is the correspondence of what is on their tongues to what is in their hearts, contrary to the hypocrites who say with their mouths what is not in their hearts. There is no problem in the division then. It is also said: "Truth" is in the sense famous among the public, except that the meaning of "they proved true" is "they prove true," and the past tense is used for the present to denote the certainty of occurrence. Both statements are as you see.

It is narrated from Ibn Abbas that Nafi bin al-Azraq asked him about the words of the Almighty: "fulfilled his vow (qada nahbahu)," and he said: "His fixed term which was destined for him." He asked: "Do the Arabs know that?" He said: "Yes, have you not heard the saying of Labid: 'Will you two not ask the man what he attempts? A vow to be fulfilled, or delusion and falsehood?'" A group narrated from him that he interpreted it as death. A similar account is narrated from Ibn ‘Umar, may Allah be pleased with them both. According to this, there is no barrier to interpreting "proven true what they pledged to Allah" as mentioned by al-Raghib—they verified the covenant in their manifested actions. Thus, the meaning is: Among the believers are men who pledged to Allah to remain steadfast and fight if they met a battle with the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, and they verified that and remained steadfast. Of them, some have died, and of them, some are waiting for death.

What the context suggests is that the meaning of "fulfilled his vow" is being confirmed as having attained martyrdom, such as Anas bin al-Nadr and Mus'ab bin ‘Umayr. It is possible that it means something more general than that, so it includes those who died after remaining steadfast a natural death before the revelation of the verse, if there were any such people. Uthman and Talhah were counted among those who are waiting. The first that was mentioned regarding Talhah, that he is among those who have fulfilled their vow, is that the meaning is he is in the status of one who attained martyrdom. They made this necessary in what Sa'id bin Mansur, Abu Ya'la, Ibn al-Mundhir, Abu Nu'aym, and Ibn Marduyah narrated from ‘Aishah, that the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said: "Whoever would be pleased to look at a man walking on the earth who has fulfilled his vow, let him look at Talhah." Ibn Marduyah narrated the like from the hadith of Jabir bin Abdullah.

In Irshad al-'Aql al-Salim, it is narrated from ‘Aishah with the wording: "Whoever would be pleased to look at a martyr walking on the earth who has already fulfilled his vow, let him look at Talhah." In Majma' al-Bayan, from Abu Ishaq from ‘Ali, may Allah honor his face, that he said: "It was revealed concerning us: 'Men who have proven true what they pledged to Allah,' and by Allah, I am the waiter." In some of them, "with the waiting" which signals the desire for what is awaited is martyrdom, with the perfection of their longing for martyrdom. It is said: [it refers to] death in an absolute sense, out of love for meeting Allah and desire for what is with Him, the Exalted.

"...and they did not change [by] any alteration"—this is a conjunction to "proven true," and its subject is the same subject. That is, they did not alter their covenant and did not change it in any way—neither in its essence nor in its description. Rather, they remained steadfast upon it, desiring it and observing its rights in the best possible manner. As for those who have fulfilled [their vows], it is manifest; as for the others, their waiting testifies to it with the most truthful testimony. Generalizing the lack of alteration to the first group, despite their manifest condition, is to signal the equality of the second group with them in this judgment.

It is permissible that the pronoun in "they changed" refers to those who are waiting specifically, based on the fact that those who need clarification are their condition. In the speech is an allusion to those who altered among the hypocrites, who turned their backs, even though they had pledged not to turn their backs. It is as if it were said: "And they did not change as the hypocrites changed." Reflect on all of that, and Allah the Almighty is the one who guides you.